1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to pressurized fluid cleaning machines and more particularly pertains to a new livestock enclosure washing assembly for automatically spraying down a livestock enclosure to remove dirt and waste materials.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The use of pressurized fluid cleaning machines is known in the prior art. U.S. Pat. No. 5,462,227 describes an automatic cleaning device for use on a stock farm having a pivoting sprinkler head. Another type of pressurized fluid cleaning machine is U.S. Pat. No. 4,782,551 disclosing an apparatus for cleaning surfaces using a pivoting or oscillating spray nozzle. U.S. Pat. No. 5,947,387 discloses a rotatable high pressure tool for cleaning hollow objects in which the tool is rotated by the force of a fluid forced out of the tool at high pressure. U.S. Pat. No. 5,594,973 discloses a cable suspended pulley operated air gun for cleaning the interior walls of a silo. U.S. Pat. No. 3,625,425 discloses a device for cleaning the interior of a vat or tank. U.S. Pat. No. 5,312,044 discloses a rotating arm having downwardly directed spray nozzles for cleaning.
While these devices fulfill their respective, particular objectives and requirements, the need remains for a device that can be set up within an animal enclosure and operated automatically to spray down a selectable area to reduce man hours required to maintain sufficiently sanitary conditions within the enclosure.
The present invention meets the needs presented above by providing a spray nozzle that pivots to spray a desired range of space coupled with a rotating assembly for moving the spray nozzle laterally to spray over a large three dimensional space.
Still yet another object of the present invention is to provide a new livestock enclosure washing assembly that can be set and left substantially unmonitored to reduce the number of man hours required to clean an enclosure for livestock such as pigs.
Yet another object of the present invention is to sufficiently and economically clean an enclosure such that only manual spot cleaning of particularly soiled areas is needed and that time required for the manual spot cleaning will be greatly reduced after use of the invention.
Even still another object of the present invention is to provide a new livestock enclosure washing assembly that substantially removes all dirt, debris, and waste material automatically from a livestock enclosure to maintain sufficiently sanitary conditions to maintain a high level of animal health.
To this end, the present invention generally comprises a cart movable within an animal enclosure, an adjustable articulated arm that rotates around the cart in a settable range, a pivoting spray nozzle for spraying in and out from the cart as the articulated arm rotates around the cart, and a pressurizing unit for dispensing a pressurized fluid through the spray nozzle to effectively remove dirt, debris and waste material from surfaces contacted by the pressurized fluid spray.
There has thus been outlined, rather broadly, the more important features of the invention in order that the detailed description thereof that follows may be better understood, and in order that the present contribution to the art may be better appreciated. There are additional features of the invention that will be described hereinafter and which will form the subject matter of the claims appended hereto.
The objects of the invention, along with the various features of novelty which characterize the invention, are pointed out with particularity in the claims annexed to and forming a part of this disclosure.